#SpookyAllYear…The Girl from the Well

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#SpookyAllYear, horror, horror book, Rin Chupeco, The Girl from the Well

I just finished a book…a FABULOUS book and wanted to share it with everyone on this day where we celebrate Spooky All Year with Faith McKay and The Midnight Society. Go visit them and add your own spooky post!

THE GIRL FROM THE WELL by Rin Chupeco

Told from the point of view of Okiku, a dead girl, we watch her change as she helps Tarquin deal with a rather nasty entity that has latched onto him.

This book! I can’t even…

The writing was fabulous. The omniscient point of view was strange and I felt a bit detached from the action, but it also fit because of the story being told by a ghost. Dude, ghosts aren’t limited by our human senses and see the world in a different way.

The images. The creepiness. The terrible woman in black on a hunt to kill.

Amazing stuff. I’ll never forget it.

Can’t wait to read Rin Chupeco’s other book THE SUFFERING!

Lucky… Spoiled: One of Those

Tags

avoiding a day job, deserving, lucky, spoiled, thoughts, writing

I like to say I’m pretty darn lucky.

However, spoiled likes to duck into the picture.

I don’t have a day job. I haven’t had one since I got pregnant 15 years ago and became a stay-at-home mom. My dream job, to sit in my house. Well, not sit, maybe, but I didn’t have to leave.

When I started writing, Hubs and I had a deal…I either get published or I get a day job when the kids get old enough to take care of themselves. That time has come and gone. I probably should have crawled out into the real world and found a way to make actual money a few years ago. But the thought made me want to cry, made me want to curl up into a ball of NOOOOOOO! I had a few jobs in my life, jobs that sucked my soul dry, jobs that shoved me in a hole of depression. Let’s face it, I’m pretty smart, but an art degree doesn’t get you anything other than grunt worker.

 

So I dodged. I ducked. I hid.

 

Something so many people can’t do.

Then I signed with a publisher.

So technically, I don’t have to get a mind-numbing job that I will hate. But honestly, I won’t make much money with this book or the next, maybe the next. This is not a means to get rich. But I love it, it’s what I must do, so I write more. And hubs seems okay with this.

Lucky.

I’m still here doing all the cooking, cleaning, laundry. I’m still here able to get the kids anywhere at anytime, doctors appointments, sports, friends’ houses. I’ve been able to volunteer for school field trips, girl scouts, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

Hubs works two jobs. He has for a long time. If I got a job, he wouldn’t stop, so it’s not like me sitting on my butt is keeping him from being able to leave one. I’m going to three conferences this year, because he said to go! I should go! That is part of this writer job. He just bought me a new computer, which arrives later this week, because this computer has been doing odd things and it’s scaring me.

Spoiled.

We’ve made our way into our forties and worked our way into a comfortable existence. Mostly I feel undeserving of all of it. The life we have created is great and I thank God, the Universe, whatever you want to call the something bigger out there everyday for what we have.

Spoiled?

Lucky?

Both.

Mostly just grateful. Mostly hoping I can be deserving.

The Strange World of Publishing

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dreams come true, publishing, thoughts, writing

Writers. We all have dreams. We all work to achieve those dreams.

But really we have no idea what we’re doing. And we have NO IDEA what those dreams will look like when they come true.

No idea.

Because the world of publishing is always shifting, always changing, completely unpredictable. Kind of like writing.

We write. We submit. We query.

And repeat.

Feels a little like that, right?

And somewhere in there, if we’re lucky our words are accepted to become A BOOK.

And a great weight lifts from our shoulders, but don’t get comfortable. Because everything can change for all sorts of reasons… reasons you may never know. That release date? It can be moved. Those edits you’re waiting for? They might come later than you hoped. Book covers? Dude, those can be hard work.

Frustration and disappointment can be a result.

It happens. I have just dipped my little toe into the strange world of publishing. I am a mere babe in the woods. And I am learning to accept the ebb and flow. To just go with it.

Because I’m dealing with people. People who have lives and their own problems. People who do the best they can.

I’m dealing with a business. A business of making money, of doing what is best for that business.

So, things don’t go as I thought? Oh well.

Moving on. My dream is alive in all the changes and craziness. And the dream will come true. So I will continue my journey into the strange land of publishing and keep my mind open and ready for anything that comes.

 

Remember

Tags

Alan Rickman, artists, David Bowie, remember forever, salute

I don’t know what’s going on in the world, why the Universe has decided to take people to the Beyond before we’re ready to let them go.

But the Universe has its reasons.

Just a short post to salute two artists, who have left this world, and left their mark upon the world.

David Bowie. His music is brilliant and fabulous and will forever be heard. And I will hold a special place in my heart for his role as the Goblin King in Labyrinth.

Alan Rickman. So many movie roles, so many memorable characters.

Forever remember.

#SpookyAllYear

Tags

#SpookyAllYear, horror, IT, Stephen King

Time for Spooky All Year the brain child of the fabulous Faith Mckay, for all us horror fans to celebrate the things that scare us all year. Join The Midnight Society in this fun and creepy blog hop. So visit there site here to see what others have shared and even write your own post and link it to the page.

Today I want to talk about a book (well one of the books) that left serious scary in my brain.

IT by Stephen King.

Anyone else?

A monster as old as time itself slumbers under a small town and creeps out from the sewers to feed on the residents on this little town. A monster that takes the shape of your fears.

This book and later the TV miniseries left me with a few issues.

One… shower drains. Did you know that showering while watching the drain is difficult? When your washing your hair while wondering if something evil is crawling out of the dark hole…

Two… clowns. Beep beep, Richie. Let me hand you a balloon and then rip your arm off.

Three…sewer drains. Quiet, dark, and innocent-looking, YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT COULD BE WATCHING YOU!

Everyone knows it’s there. No one will face it, except a group of kids.

Take the bit of silver and a slingshot, descend into the sewers, and face it.

Just don’t look into its deadlights.

Just Me…Fangirling

Tags

childhood joy, fangirling, fantasy, Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara, The Shannara Chronicles, thoughts

So last Tuesday night you might have heard screaming. Because MTV aired the first of what I HOPE will be many shows of …

Based on the book…

Published in 1982 by Ballantine Books.

I am a Terry Brooks fan. I was introduced to the trilogoy…The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, and The Wishsong of Shannara in high school and LOVED THEM.

Since then I have acquired every book in the Shannara world, a future Earth. Terry Brooks has written stories of what happened after the original trilogy to what took place before. He even went back to explain how the world we know became the world in his books.

When the TV show was announced, I was VERY excited.

When it aired last Tuesday, I watched with a great hope in my heart that all the characters I love would be there, that the adventure would come to life.

When the show began, the elves took the screen and I gasped. Arborlon appeared before me and my heart stuttered.

OMG AMBERLE! The Elven princess.

OMG THE ELLCRYS! The legendary tree.

When the scene switched to a man waking on a stone slab…

OMG ALLANON…OMG THE DRUID SLEEP! He’s a Druid… only hundreds of years old. AND COMPLETELY FABUTASTIC!

I cried. I CRIED.

Suddenly we meet Wil Ohmsford! I cried again. And his Uncle Flick! FLICK! I might have cried again.

And the DEMONS! Whoa. They were awesome.

Allanon and Wil traveled to the Druid’s Keep in Paranor… OMG.

Anyway, there is a story in all my gasping and squealing and crying. The Ellcrys is dying. And if you don’t believe the legends that it holds back a horde of demons bent on destroying the world, THEN WAKE UP! The demons are coming. The demon leader, the Dagda Mor, is not going to let anyone keep him from returning to power.

But have no fear, there is hope. The Elfstones have surfaced, a power that Wil can wield to help save the world. But using magic comes with a price, a price his father Shea paid when he destroyed the Warlock Lord with the Sword of Shannara.

And Wil had the Elfstones…until they were taken.

Amberle has earned a spot in the Chosen, those worthy to guard the Ellcrys. And the tree is talking to her, warning her.

The tree is dying.

I am ready. Let’s go! Time for a quest. Time to journey across the lands to save the world. Time to fight demons.

The visuals of The Shannara Chronicles are beautiful. The way they woven in the crumbled buildings of our present Earth, the make-up, the costumes.

What the show missed was the journeying, the long days and nights on the road. One moment they were in Arborlon then they were magically in Paranor. That was my only real problem and I realize that those scenes wouldn’t have been very exciting, so… no problem.

I haven’t read these books in A VERY LONG TIME. But I remembered things as the show continued. And I need to reread all the books again.

These books were a big part of my teenage life. Fantasy was a huge part of my teenage life, as we learned from my last blog post. I needed it. To see it come to life on the screen was magic.

When you hear screams drifting through the air tomorrow night, remember…

It’s just me, fangirling.

The Untold Tale

Tags

book, challege stereotypes, fantasy, fantasy book, J.M. Frey, The Untold Tale, thoughts

Back in December I was scheduled to give you my thoughts on a book I was super pumped to read. If you remember, I didn’t have it finished then and left you with a very excited me and half a review-ish kind of thing.

Soooo… THE UNTOLD TALE! I’m finished!

First of all, about the book…

Forsyth Turn is not a hero. Lordling of Turn Hall and Lysse Chipping, yes. Spymaster for the king, certainly. But hero? That’s his older brother’s job, and Kintyre Turn is nothing if not legendary. However, when a raid on the kingdom’s worst criminal results in the rescue of a bafflingly blunt woman, oddly named and even more oddly mannered, Forsyth finds his quaint, sedentary life is turned on its head. Dragged reluctantly into a quest he never expected, and fighting villains that even his brother has never managed to best, Forsyth is forced to confront his own self-shame and the demons that come with always being second-best. And, more than that, when he finally realizes where Lucy came from and why she’s here, he’ll be forced to question not only his place in the world, but the very meaning of his own existence. Smartly crafted, The Untold Tale gives agency to the unlikeliest of heroes: the silenced, the marginalized, and the overlooked. It asks what it really means to be a fan when the worlds you love don’t resemble the world you live in, celebrates the power of the written word, challenges tropes, and shows us what happens when someone stands up and refuses to remain a secondary character in their own life.

So this book was all I wanted and more.

As a teen, I loved fantasy bofoks. Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms… anything written by Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Anne McCaffrey, and Raymond E. Feist. If it had a dragon on the cover or a guy with a kick-butt sword, I was in. But it was more than a interest, I wanted to live in those worlds. I wanted to go on quests. I wanted a kick-butt sword. I imagined a portal opening up and taking me to another world… because I was certain I didn’t belong on this one.

As a teen I drew, a lot. I put on paper images of stories in my head, of characters that lived in the world I wanted to be a part of. I created me in that world… Tyra. She had a back story, a pain to overcome, she was AWESOME. Before I fell asleep I would live her (my) story in my mind. She had a quest to retrieve a sword… a special sword that would only respond to her. She had friends, like all fantasy stories did. An elf. A dwarf. A crazy shifter. A hero guy, who discovered there was more to Tyra than a pretty face. Dude. It was awesome. I probably still have that sketch book full of all those people.

So I connected with Pip (Lucy Piper) in The Untold Tale. And more than once I wished for the book to be in her POV. But it was Forsyth’s story and I enjoyed seeing Pip through his eyes.

But getting your wish to live in a fantasy world, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. To face the stereotypes: hero, villain, damsel in distress. To try to fit in when you are none of those.

This book has heroes and fabulous villains. There is a quest and a great battle at the end. But this story goes further. It challenges the stereotypes. What if the hero isn’t what he seems? What if the monster is just trying to be heard? What if the damsel in distress can be vulnerable and strong? It screams for everyone to have their voice, while reminding us how necessary it is to listen.

I enjoyed this book beyond just reading a tale.

The end held a fabulous twist and left a smile on my face.

And any book that mentions Karl Urban, Boris Vallejo, and Iron Man wins all the cookies.

So thank you, J.M. Frey, for the quest.

How about it, kids? Sound good to you?

Available now in paperback and ebook!

 

And the fabulous author!

Toronto-based J.M Frey (pronounced “fry”) is a science fiction and fantasy author, as well as a fanthropologist and pop culture scholar who appears in podcasts, documentaries, and on television to discuss all things geeky through the lens of academia. Her debut novel TRIPTYCH has been nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards, won the San Francisco Book Festival award for SF/F, was nominated for a 2011 CBC Bookie, was named one of The Advocate’s Best Overlooked Books of 2011, and garnered both a starred review and a place among the Best Books of 2011 from Publishers Weekly.

Find more of J.M Frey online.

 

 

 

Time to Shine!

Tags

2016, Be a better me, book debut, New Year resolutions, thoughts, writing

Welcome 2016!

Time to reset. Time to let go of the weight of last year and step into the future, one we make, one we control. Time to shine!

I know all about New Year’s resolutions, but I don’t like them. They scare me. Because at the first sign of failure, I panic, I give up, I curl up in a corner and forget the most important thing…

It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about setting those expectations so high I can’t even see them. It’s not about failure.

It’s about moving forward, being better, expecting life to throw us curve balls because that’s what it does. And in the end we wouldn’t have it any other way. Life would be pretty darn boring if nothing happened.

I have things I want to accomplish this year. I’m going to shake the procrastination and laziness demons and go for it. I’ll do what scares me. I’ll push past the self-doubt.

If all goes well, my debut DOORS will be published this year. I haven’t started freaking out yet, but it will happen.

I am attending the RT convention in Vegas in April. Look for me… I might be hiding in a corner trying to breathe. I will be in Muncie for the Midwest Writer’s Workshop in July. And possibly up in Wisconsin in May for another convention… maybe.

I have a ms to finish and another to write. I have family to visit, kids’ track meets and ball games to attend, and family vacations to be had. I have CP duties to complete and writers group meetings, Midnight Society posts, books to read. Submissions, contests… who knows?!?!?!?!

Let’s be honest, the whole not-knowing thing makes life fun…

In all of that I need to find time for me. Because if I’m a stressed out mess, life won’t be worth while.

So as 2016 begins… I shall strive to be a better me.